Golf is both a physical and psychological endeavor. Many attempts have been made in designing a putter that minimize visual errors that plague putting by the golfer and improve player confidence in this aspect of golfing. Improved visual and faster acquisition of proper sighting and alignment of the putter have been elusive goals of these attempts.
Visual distraction, which arises from the physical appearance of the putter head, affects the accuracy of the stroke during the act of putting. Efforts to minimize this source of distraction on such factors as shape and/or texture and/or color or color pattern of the top surface of the putter head itself in order to highlight the alignment aid or indicia on the putter head. One solution was proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,931 (Jazdzyk). This solution involved providing the upper surface of putter head with a camouflaging texture simulating the color and texture of grass covering the putting green. Jazdzyk's camouflaging pattern on the putter head according to Jazdzyk, rendered “the shape of the club head in some degree indistinguishable from the green as observed by a putting golfer and because of the camouflaging effect of the upper surface contrasting and readily observable indicia on the club head is more effective for addressing a golf ball and squaring the putter head with the intended line of putt and stroking of the club head for putting the ball along the intended line on the green.” More recent attempts at using color pattern or camouflaging pattern the putter head may be found in the disclosures of GB 2335149A and U.S. Pat. No. 7,022,030.
Accurate reading of the natural lie or break of the green has been a long sought after goal. One such well known method of reading the green is plumb bobbing using the putter or golf club to obtain the true vertical reference or vertical plumb line to determine the natural lie or break has been long practiced and the practice published in numerous articles. It is discussed for example in Green (U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,568), which is hereby incorporated by reference. As is well known practice in plumb bobbing using the putter, the golfer holds the putter at arm's length in front of his or her face with handle or grip of the putter held loosely between his or her fingers and allowing the putter to freely dangle like a pendulum such that the shaft serves as the vertical plumb line. However, due to the shapes of different putter heads and thus, differing center of gravities of the putter heads, true vertical plumb cannot be consistently achieved and accurate reading of the green is thwarted. In order to solve this problem prior attempts to read the natural lie or break of the green by plumb bobbing have involved devices that were internally or externally attached to a putter as exemplified by levels disclosed in Garrett (U.S. Pat. No. 3,242,582) and Murtha (U.S. Pat. No. 6,716,109); by plumb devices attached or inserted into a putter, Brucker (U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,053) and Koch (U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,886); and indicia on or in the putter shaft, Shiratori (U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,467) and Green (U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,568).